ORIGIN

La Carrera Panamericana Veteran: 1957 VW Beetle

11/24/2012 Update: This Carrera Beetle has been re-listed by the same seller, this time with the Buy-It-Now reduced to $20k. Find it here on eBay. Special thanks to BaT reader Geoff A. for this update!

From 8/28/2012:

This 1957 VW Beetle was professionally built from the ground up and campaigned the La Carrera Panamericana Mexican road race in 2009. All work is said to have been done by racers who build for the Baja 500 and 1000. Gary Faules’ well known Carrera blog featured the car and shows pics of it at the event here. The car is now here on eBay in Chula Vista, California.

The Beetle is said to have received a brand new pan and a custom 6 point chromoly cage. Both bumpers are said to be pinned for quick release, and front and rear skid plates were added. The car was then painted inside and out in a metallic BMW silver grey with clearcoat. If it were our build we may have gone with a bright period primary color, but this is purely subjective and the car looks great as is.

The interior features Corbeau suede seats with 6 point belts, quick release Nardi steering wheel, fire suppression system, and custom leather cargo bags. Extensive instrumentation has also been installed, as well as a re-built Halda Tripmaster and custom wiring. A 10 gallon fuel cell with water separator, 2 rotary fuel pumps, and a Webasto type roof round out the modifications.

The motor is said to be a fresh 1835cc VW motor with less than 500 miles on it. It’s fed by a pair of Dellorto 40 carbs, and features and SLR cam, ported heads, and a Setrab oil cooler. The suspension is said to be set up like a tuned 356, and features Koni shocks, front and rear sway bars, and 51/2″ wide front and 6″ rear Porsche wheels. The car now runs on all wheel disk brakes, and the tranny has been gone through and is said to have a slightly taller 4th gear to keep rpm down. As a bonus, the car comes with a custom light T-trailer for towing.

While the La Carrera Panamericana is perhaps best known for Studebakers and other American heavyweights, this early Beetle makes for a fun alternative in keeping with the spirit of the event, and is certainly more interesting than an ubiquitous Mustang or Porsche. Based on the photos and description the build looks amazing, and anyone with a never-ending racing Beetle project should just make the smart move, buy this, and head south of the border for glory or bust!

Oooh looks nice. With only 500 miles on the clock too! I like the colour although it would look good in the traditional bright yellow or orange. I ended up with a black one from Breeze Volkswagen and i can’t help but feel i’ve cheated the old fashioned look. I’ve always thought old beetles look a bit like mice too..

Nice looking car, but maybe under powered and under geared for the Historica A class. Running only 100 mph against the 356 and Alfa guys in well sorted cars would be tough, when they all can easily go 115 or faster. My experience mimic’s Lucha Libre in that when you get lost- and you will- and need to catch up, running 90mph in a car like this for an hour or longer would likely grenade the motor. I had a bug back in the day and it would get hairy at 70 let alone 100! They want FIA current seats, a 10 lbs fire system and extra roof bars in the cage to pass tech, so it may not be as turn key as you think. After all the crashing this year expect them to be really picky next year in tech. Is LCP a rich guys event? Well you get a entire SEASON of racing done in 8 days ( with qualifying) , so who knows.This year I did it on one set of Toyo R888’s and a lot of PEMEX super! – I got off cheap! What do you spend to race 8 events in a year?

The street testing I an very familiar with, I run ran the LCP 510 on Saturday…

When will people learn. The VW in the pic is hardly a VW. Un-restored original VW ‘s from the 50’s through 1967 are getting very hard to find. I wonder how many good originals have been converted into something else.

A bug is a bug….not a hot-rod. I am not impressed. Keep them the way that Dr. Porsche wanted them to be.

There is a much healthier market for original and tastefully done restorations.

Super nice but what do you do with it? Cage/door bars would make it a pita as a street car. Seems odd, the suspension setup looks all low/show, I guess the roads on the Panamericana must be pretty smooth. But then why all the skid plates?

If you bought yours from a guy in WA state about 6 years back it could be mine previously owned. It was polar silver with beige interior. If I restored it I would have gone Polar/red also, great combo. I think they brought Polar back with the new Beetle. Good luck with your project and don’t let it go – trailing the buses they are going up in value fast.

@Nomad: Camber compensator is equal to the z-bar and limits suspension travel to eliminate jacking. The suspension swap to IRS would disqualify the car.

@73tiiJeff: Ditto all that… our 1584cc Karmann Ghia can pin the speedo at half throttle and redlines at 102mph with it’s short gearing. Granted, I’m a former race engine builder/tuner, but still, that’s good for a near stock flat 4.

Neat car! I have a ’57 and a ’59. They’re fun little cars and always garner interest from bystanders. Chicks dig ‘em! People didn’t think much of the original Mini Cooper but look how it fared in endurance racing. The French contingent even cried foul about the Mini when it won its class again.

I’m wondering how she handles Mexican twisties at 100mph with swing-axles and 6″ Fuchs in the back? (it looks like swing axles…. to me at least) I ran my old IRS Cal bug at 85+….. but swing axles are a different story!

A “camber compensator” is listed on the build…. is that like a z-bar? Does that really prevent “jacking”?

The seller states he pulled out of the 2009 LCP early and didn’t finish due to because it wasn’t fully sorted yet.

Can VW swing axles be made to handle high speed road rallies ? Could a 59′ with a IRS pan still qualify for the Historic A class?

Hmmm. Either my previous comment was flagged, or it didn’t make it though…

Nice Bug, and well executed for its purpose. The quick release bumpers are not to my taste, but the sliding rag top (appears factory to me not Webasto) is great to have, especially on a Mexican road race. An 1835cc engine in this light car is quite fast, as long as it is the newer “thick wall” cylinders and not the old design which warped quickly. This car could be very competitive in the Carrera as the power to weight ratio is very favorable with around 90 wheel horsepower when properly tuned and jetted. Many of the other cars competing would be at a disadvantage in horsepower per pound.

I enjoy reading others interpretations of old Beetles, having driven them for over thirty years now. I drive a ’60 Bug daily and it will do 80+ mph all day long with a very mild 1600 cc – far faster than is regularly acheived in most road races. Best wishes to the seller and buyer!

Beautiful. Definitely an odd choice to build an LCP car with a fabric sunroof though (a metal panel would provide a bit of rigidity). Great color choice and a seemingly high-level of fit and finish. Not normally my thing; but pretty darn sweet.

Zut, Jock beat me to it; but if you can put a 911 TT engine in a VW bus, you can probably wedge one into a Beetle.

I always wanted to give the Carrera a try, and wondered if there was a cheap way to get in. I guess this could be one way in, but it sounds like it could be possibly dangerous in this smaller underpowered car. Given the high cost of participation, it would probably not be worth running a car that was not very comfortable or up to a decent speed. I guess it will always be a rich mans event…..

This looks to me to be a very well built Carrera car. Maybe not the best choice for running up fron with the big boys. As one who has run three Carreras in cars with top end speeds just over 100mph. The real issue is the transit sections. Small displacement cars run faster in transit than they do in the race. This car will need to be driven flat-out all day (race & transit) and not have any mechanical issues or navigational mistakes if you want to keep up with the pace. That said, I couldn’t build it for the asking price. From my experience, I can say its a lot of fun to drive a slow car fast. As this one runs in Historic A, at the back of the pack, you get to see the wreckage of “fast guys” in their Mustangs, 911s and Corvettes. Buy it, (for less) drive it and survive it to tell the tale.

@Chris in Vancity: Good luck finding a 411/412 these days. Friend of mine has been looking for years; appears they’re all spoken for or rusted into oblivion. “Too much money for a Volkswagen” back then– my how things have changed.

A car like this doesn’t make any sense; spend $50,000 to $70,000 or more on a car nowhere near as capable as new civic si but it sure is cool & I’m sure it’s a lot of fun and that’s what it’s all about.

An 1835 cc engine with Dellortos will move this pretty quickly down the road; bugs don’t weigh much and are geared low. I remember having a friend in school with a ’66 and an 1835, he could out drag anyone in first gear, and then hold then off in second.

Once he kept up with a 396 Chevelle at a short stop light. After that, no one would race him; nobody in a muscle car wants to loose to a bug.

This one is nice- I like the quick release bumpers, those blades will hang you up on a Mexican road.

Beautiful combination of two famous schools of Beetle modification: Cali cruiser and Baja. Looks like this one got the best of each. (I also imagine it as the bully that stole Herbie’s lunch money every day.)

Don’t get me wrong ,I love beetles had too many to count,but this is the last car I’d take on the La Carrera Panamericana.My back is hurting just thinking about it…oh well time to take another Vicadin .

To me it looks like they were planning on blasting the incredibly frequent speed bumps ( topes) while the Lambo slowed to 3 mph and drove sideways over them.

In Mexico the main highway goes right through all the villages and towns. Speed bumps are frequent, some times they have warning signs for them but the speed bumps have been removed or just the painted lines are there but no actual bump while other times there are no warnings just a big ol black bump.

Topes make great passing zones in an F-350 trying to get around a 1984 corolla.

This is a mixed bag: The car is gorgeous and looks like a lot of thought/care went into the build… BUT do you really want to have all that time on your hands, driving along at 90 mph , while the rest of the pack whizzes by ?

Oh yeah, I forgot; 90 mph in a Beetle is like 160 in a Lambo

Fun local canyon carver, or even race it in vintage (on short tight courses ) ;-)

I can’t even tell you how much I like this car! Dang Bat nice work! Yes I might like a few more CC’s but she’s built for an endurance race, right down to blasting the topes at full speed with skid plates and strengthened arms. Aye Carrumba!

Somehow you earlier responders are so missing the point here … are you diluting your JOE with too much Cow ? The attention paid to this project dwarfs most shared over BAT in the last few months but then maybe you didn’t take the op to view the photos or read the owner’s details… for instance … yes the paint is Beamer…. but that’s not the point . Its the huge amount of excellent work ……. I mean , check out the cage ! All the back up aux.parts to cover break downs… even the Narti…….. Ok so just go past the body and see the art ! Hello , is anyone awake out there ! I didn’t even mention the excellent race page attached ,classy chapters of film etc… about the event . score….. 10 for submitter… 0 for early reader’s… yawn !

This is a Great choice for La Carrera! Not only did Beetle compete in the original races, but these cars were still built in Mexico up to about 2004. So if it disappoints you on those long flat straights into Mexico City, parts can be found almost anywhere. This one is a real looker too!

ooohh…. that’s quite lovely! Would make for a great CA canyon cruiser too, I imagine. Polaris (as suggested above) would be period correct, but since we’re not talking stock, or even restomod, who really cares that it’s a BMW color… gorgeous inspiration for my own ’57 :)